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Tuesday, 9 January 2018

Blue-Tongue

During a brief wander at Studley Park this week, I stumbled upon a Blue-Tongue lizard - in fact a Blotched Blue-Tongue (Tiliqua nigrolutea) if we want to be specific.

Blue-Tongues are large skinks - with this animal being about 45cm long. As is the way with these animals, it was really doing all that much - just passing through as it looked for food.

When I was checking through the images I took at home, I noticed the two creamy white objects behind the lizards from leg. (Best seen in the 3rd picture) With the help of some people on a reptile forum I was able to find out that they are ticks - apparently most blue-tongues carry a few. When I found this out, my toes curled up a bit!

In the second picture, you can see why these skinks are known as blue-tongues!

I love the Blue-tongue, Stewart, but I'm not so keen on the ticks. I'm very wary of them now. I was ill for a couple of months when I got three tick nymphs on my hand after putting it down in grass at Machu-Picchu! I know someone who's a 'tick magnet' - he goes to Scotland every year and seems to get one or more most years! Greetings from UK - - Richard